I was reading Fox news this evening and saw an article about a recent volcano eruption in Chile. This immediately caught my attention because my girlfriend, Natalia, is from Chile and still has family there. I have to admit that my geographic knowledge of Chile is still lacking so I wanted to know how close the volcano had erupted from the town Natalia is from. This prompted me to load up Google Earth and navigate to the place of the eruption.

Relieved the eruption was at least 2 monitor screens away (probably a few hundred miles at that scale) I decided to check out the worlds largest swimming pool, also in Chile. No matter how many times I see the pictures, I still can't get over how massive that body of water is (on a side note, I'm planning on visiting that location this December, WooHoo!).

Since I had Google Earth loaded, I went wandering around the globe and ended up in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. I visited my parents house (still under construction from the fire), a large park near my parents house, downtown and finally my house. I noted that the date of the imagery was July 12, which happened to be a Thursday. That got me thinking, where was I?

At the time I was still working at Corillian Corporation on the corporate security team. So I scooted over to that location. Since it was July, I would have been riding my motorcycle. Would I be able to see it from this high up I wondered. Compared to most vehicles, my bike is small and I wondered if I'd be able to find it in the parking lot.

Didn't take much searching, my bright red bike was very visible from that high up, and parked right where I thought it would be. In the front parking lot second spot from the right, where the CEO usually parked his 7 series BMW (much to his chagrin I'm told).

It seems every where you turn these days you are encouraged to click. "Click here to apply", "click through to save", "click on the monkey to win an iPod". Since its introduction, the computer mouse has been firmly entrenched in our minds. The mouse has even become a metaphor for the incredibly simple, "setting up the firewall was as easy as point and click."

While this may not even occur to members of the younger generation, I grew up with the tried and true CLI (that's command line interface for you youngin's out there). The only impedance to progress what how fast you could type and how fast the computer could process input. It was natural, efficient. Although with applications like computer games and web browsers, the mouse is indispensable. But some days despite all the utility it provides, some days I don't want to be bothered with pointing and clicking.

For those that feel the same, the IE team has posted on their blog a list of keyboard shortcuts for navigating around in IE6 and IE7. The post lists shortcuts for all the common navigation tasks like going back a page, scrolling, stopping the current request and closing the window. The post also lists a few power user tips, like focusing on the navigation bar and opening the right-click 'context' menu. A handy reference to have around when your feeling not so handy.

Thanksgiving day, November 22nd this year meant a lot of things to a lot of different people. For some it was a time of joyous celebration, for others a time to reflect on their fortunes and misfortunes. I did a little of both. I've been very fortunate thus far in my life and have plenty to be thankful for. I have a loving family, a good job which allows me to pursue many of my interests, a group of great friends and an amazing woman I started dating a little while ago. I spent thanksgiving with my parents and sisters this year at my parents cramped, 1 bedroom apartment. Seven people in a barely 700 square foot apartment and a mother who loves to cook made for a lot of dancing around the kitchen and shuffling items around to make room for everyone.

But it also serves as a reminder that one year ago, on November 27th 2006 my parents house burned down with them narrowly escaping with barely the clothes on their backs. I can still recall that late night phone call from my frantic mother and it still sends chills down my spine. Over the past year the shock of the event has faded and been replaced by a feverish anxiousness to return home. The reconstruction of the house is finally near completion and while displaced, my parents have resumed their normal routine.

Since the house was almost completely destroyed, my mom (who had been wanting a new kitchen) took this opportunity to expand a little bit. In the new house, the kitchen/dining room area had it's back wall pushed an additional ten feet into the back yard, nearly doubling the size of the kitchen. Also, a walk-in pantry and half bath was added off the kitchen into what used to be the first bay in a two car garage. Off the back of the house a deck was built with a gas line run out to fuel the large natural gas grill my dad recently purchased. If I had to choose a phrase to sum up the results of this rebuild/remodel it would be "storage space". The kitchen and pantry have enough storage space to rival some homes I've been in that are twice the size.

These two pictures show the same area of the house, just from opposite vantage points. The first is of the kitchen the day of the fire, taken from the garage. The other was taken about a month ago, from the dining area looking out into the pantry (where the first picture was taken).

As you can see, the appliances haven't been installed yet and the floor hasn't been varnished yet, but it almost feels like a home again. I'm looking to when the house is completely done and ready to move in.

This has been a very eventful year to say the least. In addition to losing my parents house, I bought a house, started an internet marketing business and started a new job. All things considered, I'm thankful for a great many people and things this holiday season.

A Department of Defense program, 'America Supports You', explains a quick way to tell the troops overseas that you appreciate the sacrafice they are making this holiday season. From the DoD website:

The program, which already has received nearly 4,000 messages, officially kicks off at 6 a.m. EST Nov. 17 and concludes at midnight PST Nov. 22. Between those times, people wishing to express gratitude to the troops for their service can text a brief message to 89279. Each text message sent will receive a response from an active-duty servicemember in return. Major mobile wireless providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile, will provide access to the Giving Thanks text messaging program.

Take a moment over the next day and send a quick note of appreciation those people serving our country who cannot be home with their loved ones.

We have all been there. You have that friend who has a birthday coming up soon but you have no idea what to get them. They have everything they could possibly want. How do you show them you really care enough to search the ends of the Earth looking for that perfect gift. The gift that really reflects how you feel about their shallowness and vanity. Well look no further, your search is over.

Get them Nothing. You heard right, Nothing. And the best part is, it's cheap. For the low low price of £3.49 (approx. $6.28 US) you can get them the gift they'll never forget.

You have a hot date on a Saturday night. You go to put on your favorite shirt to impress your date and low and behold, you're missing a button. You have to pick up your date in 30 minutes, so there is no time to call your mom. You have two options, 1) put on that brown shirt from your great aunt that makes you look so handsome, or 2) break out the how to video on sewing on a button.

Now if this conjures images of a 1950's video you might seen in home economics of a little old lady in a shawl and rhine stone glasses. Well think again. Introducing Debbie. In this video Debbie shows how to repair a missing button.

I'm told there is going to be a whole series. So if you are interested in what else Debbie can teach you, pay attention to Debbie's website for more videos.

OR, all you married women out there. If you're getting tired of sewing buttons on your husbands shirts, and he won't sit still long enough to learn how to do it himself. Look no further than this video.

I spent alot of time during the day chatting with friends and co-workers using instant messaging. Whether I'm catching up with friends half the US away or asking a co-worker in the next office about something (yes, we programmers are pretty lazy), IM has become something I utilize heavily.

Recently I discovered that Microsoft launched a new initiative, called I'm, to aid various social causes through the use of their Windows Live Messenger service. The premise is simple, everytime you start or join a conversation, Microsoft will donate a portion of the advertising revenue to a social cause of your choice.

To join, follow this link or click the 'I'm Join Now' link in my left side bar, download the Windows Live Messenger client, choose a social cause to support and get chatting, Microsoft takes care of the rest.

This is a great way to support a social cause you belive in by doing something we all do anyway.

Where I work, especially around deadlines, there is a lot of profanity thrown around. For what ever reason people get frustrated and then swear. Whether it is because a co-worker drops an unexpected task, or their computer simple will not cooperate with them, all those naughty words you were taught never to say flow freely like champagne on New Years.

My friend Brent and I, after realizing that we might have a problem with profanity, decided to hold ourselves accountable for every word we uttered in the form of a check marks on a white board worth twenty five cents. That lasted a few weeks and things did get better, but as with all schemes of that nature, we got busy again and started swearing again and said f**k it to the check marks.

Well, since going cold turkey isn't the way to change anything I've stumbled across a game that could help alleviate your potty mouth while still giving you that feeling of satisfaction you get when you vent (and it could help your typing skills too). The object is to type in as many swear words as you can think of in the allotted time period and the game awards you points.

Next time you feel like launching a verbal assault on your cellphone for dropping a call with your signifcant other, give this game a try instead and maybe your co-workers won't look at you funny anymore. (Unless you're a bad typer, in which case this will just make you more pissed off and start swearing at my blog. Please don't swear at my blog.)

When I opened my email this afternoon I noticed an email entitled "RED FRIDAY". I get a lot of chain letters in my email, most of them I read and a few I forward on. After reading this particular message I wanted to forward it on to everyone I knew, but thought it more reach more readers if I posted it here.

The message was written by an airline passenger. On this flight he noticed a US Marine carrying a folded flag. The man inquired of the soldier if he was heading home or if he was heading out. The Marine replied that he was escorting a soldier home. "Going to pick him up?" asked the passenger. The Marine responded "No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Iraq. I'm taking him home to his family."

When they landed, the pilot stopped just short of the gate and asked that all passengers remain seated while Sergent Steeley of the US Marines deplane and receive his fellow soldier. The passengers watched silently as the casket of the fallen soldier was unloaded from the plane, draped in the colors of the nation he gave his life serving.

I'm not a supporter of the war in Iraq, but I am a supporter of the men and women serving our nation overseas. The brave souls who risk their lives everyday so that we can continue to enjoy the freedoms we've grown accustom to.

Join me in showing your support for our nations troops by wearing red this and every Friday until each one of our service men and women is back with their families.

I'm bound my honor (and being an honorable person) to post 5 things you don't know about me. I was tagged by Greg to undertake this task. And now for the good stuff:

In 4th grade, I helped my grade school run enough miles to equal a trip around the planet. The PE teacher had this great idea to promote physical fitness where each kid would run so many laps at recess and record how many miles they equaled. This led to a broken foot, which despite my constant complaining, my mother did nothing about for almost 2 weeks.

I hate milk. I will have it on cereal, I will drink chocolate milk but I will not drink milk straight. Had powdered milk once when I was about 4 and have not touched the stuff since (much to the detriment of my bones - see #1)

I've seen the movie Hackers over 60 times (40 or so of the viewings were in the first 2 weeks of owning the film).

When I have dental work done, I refuse any anesthetic. Partly because I REALLY hate that topical stuff they use before they stick the needle in and partly because I really hate drooling all over myself for 3 hours after my cavity is fixed.

I'm a hopeless romantic. I love long conversations that go no where, surprising my significant other at work with flowers, leaving to be found and finding notes when I get home, I could go on and on....

Well now you have it. Unfortunetly I don't know any other bloggers that haven't already be "tagged" so.. Aaron & Scoble You're It!

I returned to my parents house recently to take survey of what progress has been made. It's been one month since the house I grew up in burned down. On the surface not much has happened. The carcass of the house still stands as it did on that fatefull day.

I walk through what little is left of the garage into the back yard. They have added some more tarps and plywood to protect the charred interior from the elements and any unscrupulous visitors. All the melted appliances and various bits of debris have been shovelled up into a dumpster leaving the garage floor slick and sooty. But other than that not much has happened. Inside the house items that escaped the fire have either been thrown away or taken to be cleaned and returned to my parents, including a casket flag that belonged to my grandfather when he was buried in Willamette National Cemetery.

We are waiting to hear what the structural engineers had to say about the surviving portions of the house, which will determine how long it will take to rebuild the house (I understand permits for existing structures are a WHOLE lot easier to get than permits for new structures). We are still waiting on the insurance to rule on my mothers Jeep and my parents travel trailer.

But underneath the surface, things are starting to grow again. Like a forest after a large fire, life begins anew. My parents have moved into a temporary apartment until their house is finished. They have purchased a new bed and lots of items for the kitchen (my mother loves to cook). And some other items, thanks to the generosity of co-workers, mothers, fathers and mine for their generous support, monetary and otherwise.

This year we had Christmas at my house. My parents and I went out and got a six foot Grand Fir, leaving the house smelling of pine, which I'm enjoying. Then I borrowed several boxes of decorations and some strangs of lights from a friend and purchased a few more to decorate the tree. We placed the presents saved from the fire under the tree right away (in years past, no presents were placed under the tree until after us kids had gone to bed).

Christmas Eve, my parents, both sisters and their respective significant others came over for dinner. our house is not the typical bachelor pad when it comes to kitchen utensils, but when my mother started cooking dinner I quickly realized our kitchen was lacking some basic items... But even without a potatoe masher and meat fork, dinner was excellent. So much so, that shortly after we all went to sleep, food comas in full effect.

Christmas morning brought a great breakfast and lots of joy as we all sat around the tree, opened presents, reminisced and watched christmas movies (and one visit from the neighbors when the movie got a bit too loud).

Overall, this was the best Christmas in recent memory. Not for what each of us received, but because we were able to enjoy it together. I've never been one for taking people for granted, but a tradegy like this really makes you stop and realize how short your time is with the ones you love. I'm eagerly looking forward to next Christmas and being with the one I love.

The most traumatic event of my young life happened to me this past Monday. My parent’s house burned down. I got the phone call at 1:50AM Monday morning November 27, 2006. I answer half asleep to my mother yelling into the phone hysterically repeating over and over a terrible accident has happened. All the time my mind is racing trying to figure out what could have happened and filling with a primal dread. I was sure my grandmother had passed away as she is 94 and in failing health. Then my mom drops it like an atom bomb. Our house had caught fire and has burned down, and while I'm trying to wrap my mind around that statement she tells me that our dog died in the fire.

At this point I can barely speak and manage to stammer out the statement "Oh my God, are you guys ok?" My mom asks me to come over and bring my dad some shoes and a coat because he is standing outside in 36 degree weather in shorts, a t-shirt and bare feet. So I grab a couple coats and some shoes and socks and book out of the house. I can safely say I've never had a harder time keeping my car anywhere close to the speed limit. I was exhausted, shocked and shaking pretty bad. But I knew that crashing into the WillametteRiver wouldn't help my folks so I did my best to obey the law.

It took me 20 min. to get to my parents house and the scene that greeted me was almost as shocking as the phone call. I had to park over a block away because the street in front of my parent’s house was filled with fire trucks. I remember counting nine fire trucks with water hoses running all over the place. They say this was a five alarm fire and both Portland and Gresham fire departments responded. It was chaos.

I found my parents sitting in a fire truck staying warm as a few dozen men and women fought to save what was left of their house, which wasn't much by this point. So I stood there with my arms around my parents in shock as the carcass of our house smoldered. As reality set in we started asking the firemen on the scene and the investigator when could we go back in the house. They informed us it would be later that day at the earliest. A couple firemen were kind enough to retrieve my mother’s purse and my dads watch and keys. Not knowing what the state of the interior of the house was we figured everything was destroyed, including the few Christmas gifts my mother had purchased and wrapped. Then two firemen came up to us with the presents in their arms. They smelled of smoke and were covered in soot, but they survived, a small but consoling fact none the less.

At this point there is nothing left to be done so we load up in my parents remaining vehicle and we drive to Wal-Mart, as it is the ONLY store open at 4:30 in the morning, to get my parents some clothes that didn't smell of smoke. My dad, famous for talking, informs the greeter that their house had just burned down hence why they were dressed like they were. The store manager gets word and very kindly gives my parents 10% off their entire purchase.

We then proceed to my house so they could shower and try to get some sleep. Needless to say, none of us slept. A few hours later the insurance adjuster showed up and started talking turkey. After a few stops to get some new reading glasses and a clean coat we wound up back at my parents house. Shocking doesn't describe what the house looked like earlier that morning. With the daylight I can see how thorough the damage to the house is. There is nothing left of the garage except a few charred pieces of lumber. The Jeep and travel trailer are completely gutted but luckily the full propane tanks on the trailer didn't ignite or explode.

In the backyard is where I found the remains of our dog. The police had wrapped her in an orange survival blanket. My dad and I loaded her into his pickup as gently as we could. It was at this point my mother, who had been very calm through this ordeal, lost it and started crying. I secured our dog for her trip to the vet’s office while my dad did his best to comfort my mom.

While my dad was taking the dog to be cremated I took my mom to the house of some family friends so she could get cleaned up and changed. Shortly after, my dad shows up and I head home. It’s nearing 5 in the afternoon by this point and I have been up for nearly 30 hours. When I got home my friend and boss, Greg Hughes, called and said he was heading over with a gift from the department for my parents. I set about trying to stay awake long enough for him to show up. When he did he presented me with a VISA gift card for a large sum of money. I was floored. When I started to thank him for the gift he said "You're family is our family and we take care of our own." I almost started crying right there. Words cannot describe how much their offers of help meant. Thank You all!

And my thanks goes out to the Portland and Gresham fire fighters for their quick response and diligent work that saved other homes near ours from sharing the same fate.

It's very true what they say. A tragedy is just an event until it happens to you. I recall seeing at least one report of a house or apartment fire every holiday over the past few years and thinking how terrible it must be for the affected people, but then I change the station and life goes on. Never did I think that could one day be my house on the news and my family standing in the cold. And while we now have to deal with the task of rebuilding and piecing back together some sense of normality, I've very thankful to have my parents around to help with that.

While access to Mt. Hood Meadows remains closed to the public ODOT & Tri-State construction crews worked non-stop to hit their Dec. 15 opening prediction. Meanwhile mother nature didn't get the memo about the road being closed and continues to dump snow like there is no tomorrow at the resort. Snow levels mid-mountain are already 6+ feet with more on the way. This is shaping up to be a really great season...once it starts.

Dave Riley updated his blog with new news about the HWY 35 road re-construction. So far the results are very promising. While they doubt Mt Hood Meadows will be open by Thanksgiving, they are confident the resort will be open before Christmas! And when it does there will be TONS of fresh powder.

Due to heavy rains on the glacier, massive amounts of dirt and debris have blocked HWY 35 access to Mt. Hood Meadows. ODOT, the US Forest Service and other governmental agencies are working hard to get the roads open in time for the snowboard season.

Dave Riley, President & COO of Mt. Hood Meadows keeps his blog updated with the latest news and progress.

This morning, at the awful hour of 3:30 I arose to make my trip to Minnesota. Normally, a software engineers job is behind a computer. But occasionally it's not your computer you're behind and that sometimes requires travel. In this instance to Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a quick stop in Denver to ask directions (and switch places but thats beside the point). The reason I'm here is a new customer has asked for one of the developers of the product I work on to be on-site to help install and configure. My boss asked and I said sure, why not?

I've travelled for business a couple times before, once to Maryland and once to San Diego, but it happens so infrequently I never get used to it (and hope I never do). But here I am, sitting in my hotel room, wondering what the next few days will hold for me. With almost four days in a strange city and some time to kill could get a guy into a bit of trouble (but probably with a few good stories to tell later). Anyway, what is there to do in Minneapolis?

So far I've visited the Mall of America. Well the first floor anyway. I was too tired to explore the other 3 floors after spending all day travelling so I'll go explore tomorrow, which could be dangerous because I've found a few really cool shops and got some really neat souvenirs for a couple of close friends.

As a software developer for a company that supplies online banking and anti-fraud software for some of the nations largest financial institutions, quality is my main focus. But being a human being, I sometimes make mistakes and defects get introduced into my software. There are lots of reasons why defects end up in products (my software in this case), and I think the most prevalent of these reasons is bad assumptions about how a particular feature will be used.

How does my company release such high quality software you ask? By having talented quality assurance engineers like my friend Brent. No matter how well I think I've thought something through, how good a design I think I've come up with, he finds a use case I never thought and boom, my software explodes. Which is most often due to an assumption I made that he didn't.

Where am I going with this you ask? Gizmodo has a link to a YouTube video demonstrating how to trick certain model vending machines into giving you something for free. This video demonstrates how not only did the engineers make a poor assumption but the QA people that are paid to find these kind of wrong assumptions and brow beat the engineers with them missed it as well. Now I'm not condoning theft by any means, but you have to hand it to these guys. By dismissing a simple assumption that the machine would always be able to deliver the product, they were able to trick the machine into return their money after they had purchased a soda.

Hydrogen, everyone has heard of it. It is the first element on the periodic table of elements, our chemistry teaches blew up balloons filled with it and we know that when you combine two atoms of hydrogen with one atom of oxygen you get water. But what else can you do with Hydrogen? How about power your car with it.

My friend Greg Hughes posted about BMW testing their first 7-series hybrid car that runs on hydrogen or gasoline. With gas prices on the rise and consumers clamoring for more efficient vehicles that won't sacrifice the performance we have grown accustomed to, alternative power sources for vehicles has been a hot topic for the past few years. This has led to advances in battery technology for hybrid gas/electric vehicles such as the Toyota Prius. A favorite alternative of mine is vehicles that run on alcohol, partially because of friends of mine that raced alcohol powered go-karts, but I digress. GM has been leading the push for a technology they call FlexFuel, which is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.

But what about hydrogen, where does it fit into this picture. Although, not as popular as electric cars or ethanol hybrids, there is a strong force behind the user of hydrogen for fuel simple because of the ease of creating it. Unlike ethanol, which requires vegetable waste (mainly corn) to produce or electric hybrids which store the energy from gas vehicles that is normally wasted, hydrogen can be produced for almost no cost from the most abundant substance on earth, water using solar or wind energy. There companies working to produce kits to convert your strictly gasoline burning car, truck or SUV to be a hybrid vehicle that can burn either gasoline or hydrogen. This is really cool stuff. United Nuclear is advertising a kit that allows your vehicle to run on hydrogen, and when the computer senses that the hydrogen is running out it switches back to running on gasoline. Tell me thats not cool!

One catch that United Nuclear does bring up is about the combustibility of hydrogen compared to gasoline may damage engines running greater than 9.5:1 compression ratios, e.g. turbocharged, supercharged or high performance naturally aspirated engines.

How many times has this happened to you? You have just sat down to a wonderful meal of top sirloin, garlic mashed potatoes and a fresh Caesar salad when the phone rings. You think to yourself, "maybe that is Matt calling about season passes at the mountain, I should get that." "Hello? Good evening Mr. <butchers last name because he can't speak English>, I'm calling to inform you of a wonderful oppurtunity...blah blah blah" AHHHHHHH! Why do they always call during dinner. Why? Because they know you're home.

No matter how quickly you get them off the phone, there is no taking back the aggravation they have caused you by interrupting your dinner and quality personal time with your friends/family. But, there is no reason you can't have a little fun with them.

Behold the Telemarketer counter-script. As soon as the person on the other end of the line asks you to purchse whatever wonderful time saving, life enhancing, sex enriching product they are selling, just start with this script and you will have them running for a Taco Bell application in no time!

While surfing the internet this fine Saturday morning I found a link to this site over at LifeHacker.com. Says-It.com has a Official Seal Generator. You can enter in text for the top and bottom of the seal, select your border, color scheme and choose from dozens of images for the center of your seal. The possibilities are almost limitless! If there is something missing from the site you would like to see, contact them and they will try to accommodate you. There is even an option to order the seal as a magnet or sticker. Here's one I created just now.

Picture this, your cruising down the highway, top down, sun shining, radio cranked up. Then a song comes on the radio that defines the moment. Later that day you try to explain the song to a friend in an attempt to find out who sings it. But no matter how much you try, you can't hum that guitar riff to save your life. Well frett no more, Lifehacker.com posted an article about a music service that allows you to search for that song.

Yes.com allows you to search by radio call letters or zip code. The site then displays all songs played on that station for the previous 24 hours. So the next time you are cruising down the road on an idle tuesday and that perfect song comes on, all you need to remember is the station and time and your all set.

Drugs, they're everywhere. In schools, on the streets, and I would imagine ever at work. But what do they do? What could these substances possibly offer us that would cause us to drain our bank accounts, sell our wedding rings and ruin our lives? The Genetic Sciences Learning Center at the University of Utah has create a pretty cool flash program exhibiting the effects of various drugs on the brain. Some of the drugs discussed include cocaine, heroine, ecstacy, alcohol, and a few more.

For those of you who are curious you can check out the flash program here. Remember Kids Drugs Are Bad, except the good ones, like caffeine!

California law makers have recently passed an act requiring all electronics manufacturers to list how much energy the device consumes while in stand by mode. Thinks like laptop chargers, cell phone chargers or your cable box that displays the time all consume energy when they are "off". In a time when energy is at a premium and people are trying their best to cut down on consumption, these devices are like vampires, constantly sucking down eletricity for no benefit.

An interesting name for a real albeit not widely know problem. Read about it here.

You can't help but notice these days all the reports of companies or government agencies suffering security breaches and information on thousands if not millions of people being stolen and used for who knows what. I know one individual who has had personal information about him stolen from various place three times in the past six months.

But what can you do if you think you've been a victim of identity theft or worse yet KNOW you've been a victim of identity theft. Wired is running on article on steps you can take to protect yourself from others using your good name to do naughty things. One of the easiest steps and from my experience one of the least pursued is checking your credit report regularly. Each individual is entitled to one free copy of their credit report from each credit reporting agency each year.

One of the interesting options available to some US citizens, depending on which state you're in, is freezing your credit report. This prevents anyone from viewing your credit report without your authorization. If someone applied for a credit card in your name and the credit company tries to check your credit score, DENIED. Please call Bob Smith to unlock this credit report. Some states offer this service for free if you have been a victim of identity theft while they may charge a small fee to perform this action if you are suspicious but not sure you have been victimized. Unfortunately, Oregon does not offer this service yet.

In a surprising move Samsung, a maker of many kind of electronics including mobile phones, has banned one of their products from being brought onto company property. The SCH-B570 is an mobile phone that Samsung produces with an crazy 8GB storage capacity. But Samsung is worried about some disgruntled or greedy employee using one of these phones to steal Intellectual Property (IP) from the company.

This is an interesting move where a company bans one of its own products in an attempt to protect it's IP. With a move like this you have to ask yourself, will banning a cell phone really going to solve anything. With higher capacity flash drives, MP3 players and the ability to email for that matter, stealing IP is pretty easy.

At my company we have very strict rules about attaching external and unauthorized devices to company equipment and with good reason. I work in security in the online banking space and a leak of any information or IP could spell disaster for someone or a family and thats not something I ever want to have to face.

As I mentioned here, back in October I recieved my motorcycle endorsement. I had the helmet, jacket, gloves and the M on my license. All I needed was a bike. Well after much deliberation I have made my purchase. I'm the proud owner of a 2005 CBR 600 F4i. Let the good times roll

Tonight, at 123 seconds past 1 a.m. the time will be 1:02:03 04/05/06. Now if you take into account that we're only using two digits for the year this event won't happen again for another 1000 years in the year 3006. If you happen to be out and about at that time of the night you way wish to find a 7/11 and purchase a lottery ticket :)

Arstechnica.com is running an interesting story on how the number of high school and college bound students being caught cheating using cell phones is on the rise. While the number of incidents per 1500 written tests is still relatively low it still causes concern for educators as students seem to still prefer more traditional methods of cheating.

I recall when I was in high school that the TI-92 was expressly forbidden to be used during more important exams such as your ACTs or SATs because it was capable of wireless transmissions. Curbing the rise of SMS cheating seems simple enough. Just don't let cell phones into the exam room. I think it would be pretty apparent when a student was trying to text a friend and ask what is the derivative of a fourth order polynomial...

A while ago I was hanging out with some friends and they all started talking about their MySpace.com accounts. At first I thought the idea was kinda ridiculous, one guy had a myspace account for his stuff animal... come on. After some deliberation recently I decided to give in and sign up for an account.

It has actually turned out for the better. I've found a bunch of people on myspace I haven't seen since high school, not to mention friends from college and elsewhere. Its also kinda fun to customize the site to your own style (mine has a long way to go still). After some thought, maybe MySpace isn't a cult afterall :)

So here I am again, wide awake at 12:30am on a Saturday night. This is what I get for napping in the afternoon....but I digress.

I was chatting with my boss, Greg Hughes, about blogging and activity, and I decided to log into my Google analytics site, since its been a while since I've checked. And much to my surprise I have a fair number of visits from international locals. Amazing, people in other countries actually read the stuff I write. How cool is that? And I'm not talking about a visit from Canada, although I do have a few of those, but actually a decent spread of hits from around the world, all continents are accounted for.

When I first started this whole blogging thing it was just a place for me to talk about things that caught my attention and things going on in my life. Never actually thought anyone would read. The internet is a very powerful tool and allows my thoughts to reach the largest audience possible. BTW, that screen shot was taken with the cropper tool I mentioned here.

Some friends pointed me in the direction of this website. It is the home of an artist who decided to build his own digital camera...out of cardboard, duct tape and a flat bed scanner. What he discovered led to some really amazing photos I especially, like the photos of the Audi TT. The cameras have gone through several iterations and his current model combines some old world tech with high tech innovation. Check it out and be amazed. View the site here.

I'm sure you have all heard the jokes or urban legends about the VHS tape on how to setup your VCR or the CD-ROM on how to setup your computer. Today while checking the weather and snow conditions at Mt Hood Meadows I noticed something equally as amusing and pointless. On the front page for http://www.skihood.com there is a section that lists the weeks specials (see picture). Notice the last line on where to go for details. Isn't that were I already am?!? I wonder if who ever posted that comment really gave it any thought or was it written up in the spur of the moment at 4am after 3 cups of coffee.

I've been a increasingly less satisfied customer of Verizon Wireless for just over a year now. My main gripe with Verizon is their lack of coverage in areas where all my friends had good to excellent service (this went both ways, but usually ended up on the non-Verizon side). The biggest frustration was when I started snowboarding. Verizon has HORRIBLE service at Mt Hood Meadows. Case in point: I had become separated and was trying to contact my compatriots one very clear and sunny day at the mountain. I figured I'd get really good reception if I went as high as I could, which just so happens to be Cascade Express. So there I stand with miles of visibility and pretty good signal reception showing on the phone, granted it was analog signal but hey... I dialed the number and hit send, then I waited. Silence... After about 5 seconds the phone would beep loudly and display an error simple stating call failed. What the hell...I turn off the phone and turn it back on. Try again, same result. Then I fiddle with the roaming options, again no dice. At this point I was getting pretty frustrated and decided that I'd had enough.

I have a friend with T-Mobile and she is the only person I snowboard with that consistently gets good service at the mountain so I decided to give them a try. And sure enough, first day on the mountain with my new phone during a pretty heavy snowfall I get a call. Sweet!! Its from a pet grooming shop saying my dog is ready to pick up. Thats great, but I don't own a dog. Oh Well. My new phone works at the mountain, mission accomplished.

Oh ya, which phone did I buy you ask? The Samsung t-809. This phone hit store shelves around the second week of December and from the reading I did on various cell phones on sites such as Gizmodo and Engadget, everyone was in agreement that this phone was awesome and they were all going to buy it when it became available. They were right. The screen on this phone is absolutely gorgeous. Paired with the 1.3MegaPixel camera makes for some pretty decent phone pictures. The phone also supports Micro SD cards. If you haven't seen them, they fit on the tip of our finger. The phone also has bluetooth support, quad band GSM, SMS, MMS, and a host of other features. And did I mention the screen is amazing!

I hope you all had a great new year, personally I had the best new years day EVER. As usual, I woke up early and headed up to the mountain with friends. The weather had been poor for the past few days and I was worried about what the conditions would be like. When my friends and I arrived at the mountain we were greeted by short lift lines and 6 inches of fresh powder. The combination of fresh snow and few people made for the best day of snowboarding so far this season. The only downside was it was snowing pretty heavily for most of the morning which made visibility really bad, at times less than 25 feet, which may seem like alot until your flying through the trees at high rates of speed. It was an awesome day.

But I digress... A lot has happened over the past year, many things I'm very thankful for. The first major event that happened in 2005 was my college car broke down, so I bought my Audi A6. I have a grown up job, time for a grown up car, right? I love this car, its fun to drive, comfortable and great for taking groups up to the mountain, to name a few. Doesn't get the greatest gas mileage, but oh well.

The next two events happened in close proximity to each other. First, after nine months working for The CLM Group, Inc I gave my notice and went to work for Corillian Corp., a company which provides internet banking platforms. I work in Corillian's security department, a very satisfying and exciting job, in which I'm learning a great deal about defensive programming and software security. The next event was a trip to Vancouver, BC with my co-worker Philippe. It had been almost 20 years since I had been to Vancouver, and I didn't remember much from my last trip since I was 6 at that time. We did lots of walking and sight seeing, took lots of pictures and saw some interesting things, like a guy stacking rocks.

And of course, I had a birthday. I turned 26 this year. Nothing terribly exciting about turning 26. My insurance didn't go down, I can already drink, vote and see R rated movies... but it was a good birthday none the less because I'm still here and with my and I got a free trip around the sun, heh. For my birthday my mother got me a gift certificate rather than giving me cash like normal because I would spend cash on sky diving and she just can't have that. What are mothers for except to, among other things, continually worry about their children.

Thats pretty much all the blog worthy events for this year. I'm very optimistic about the coming year, several events I'm looking forward too. I already have a trip planned to Las Vegas for a friends birthday. As my mother was wishing me a happy new year she mentioned that she hopes I find my wife this year. She's out there and I'm looking forward to seeing her ;)

Microsofts Automotive Business Unit announced the release of Windows Automotive 5.0 at The Microsoft Windows Automotive Conference 2005.

From the press release, "Windows Automotive 5.0 provides the automotive industry with a powerful, flexible software platform to create an array of cutting-edge in-vehicle solutions."

The system touts such features as an enhanced user interface toolkit and expanded virtual memory support for the creation of complex 3-D graphics and advanced navigational displays. Also mentioned are enhanced power management and faster cold boot times for increased performance.

"Based on the robust, real-time embedded operating system Windows CE 5.0, Windows Automotive 5.0 contains the building blocks necessary to integrate with off-board services, including those offering real-time traffic updates, directions to the cheapest gas in town, turn-by-turn navigation and more." And with support for 802.11, Bluetooth, USB and other common standards the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Being a software engineer and an auto enthusiast, designing an in-car system to play music, movies and other media all while making calls on my phone via bluetooth and following google maps directions to a car event, etc... has always been something I've wanted to do. Now with the new version of Windows Automotive and its ease of use I may finally be able to find the time to do just that.

Microsoft has release a few videos to demonstrate some of the possibilties. Watch them here.

I'm a HUGE music lover. Rock, rap, techno, classical and yes even some country (but not very much). I can't live with out music. So naturally I like to have my music with me whether I'm working out or just plain working. Unfortunately, taking my wide variety of music with me to work of the gym has always been a problem. At the gym I just put up with whatever they were playing over the PA, and at work I compensated by bringing in DVDs of music (I work in the security department of an internet banking company, so music on the computer is a BIG no no). Recently though I became fed up listening to the limited selection of tunes I had with me so I decided to finally break down and buy an iPod. And I haven't regretted it once.

I asked several friends and co-workers what their opinions were on the various models and the consensus was to buy an iPod nano. Uhh huh, I'd fill 4GB in about three minutes. So I decided to buy the 30GB iPod video. I went down to the local mall, got my iPod, an AC wall charger and a neoprene skin to protect my new investment, all said and done I spent about $350. At the time I thought "Damn, this thing had better be worth it." It was.

When I got it home I hooked it up to my desktop and tried to install the iTunes software. At which point I was greeted by a friend installshield error (another story all together). After lots of fiddling around, a system format and some colorful language I got the iPod all setup. I thought it would be easy to fill, I was wrong. It turns out I'm also very picky about what music I put on my iPod. While I may like a whole album while I'm driving, listening to said album while sitting on a chair lift at Mt. Hood doesn't appeal to me, probably because its so hard to change songs.

So what am I going to do with a very strict filter on musical selections and 30GB of space to fill you ask? Movies of course. This is the iPod "Video". I currently have Fight Club and Garden State residing on my iPod. The picture quality is amazing and at the small resolution they don't take up much space at all (the two movies currently on there take up about 1GB). The only downside is watching movies does eat the battery a bit faster, but thats to be expected.

This past week has been a busy one. Thursday my boss was nice enough to give a co-worker, Philippe, and myself the afternoon off to enjoy some night skiing/snowboarding at Mt. Hood Meadows. Thanks Greg! When we arrived there was a light fog settled on the mountain and I experiened one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. I wish I had a picture, but if you can imagine a scene with clouds hovering in the valleys and Mt Bachelor above it all as clear as crystal, with the setting sun reflecting off the snow covered slopes. Absolutely Gorgeous!

Saturday I awoke at 5:15am to head up to the mountain, as the mountain gets busier you have to show up earlier and earlier to get a good parking spot. My roommate, Dan, and I arrived at the main parking lot around 7:30, by 8am the main lot was nearly full. My group and I jumped on our first lift ride at 8:45am. It was a beautiful day. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and thanks to the temperature inversion around 70 degrees. We rode until the sun started to set, about 4:30pm, when the snow conditions turned to sheets of ice and the temperature dropped to the low 30's. So our party headed home for some warmth and dinner. Nothing quite like grilled cheese and tomatoe soup after a long day at the mountain.

Sunday has been a day off, so to speak. I finally got around to washing my car after about a month. For those that don't know, I drive an 2001 Audi A6. When I first bought it, I washed it with religious conviction, so to go for this long without washing the car was almost painful. But this winter season it is usually dark by the time I get off work and I spend weekends snowboarding. To give you an idea of how dirty it was, it took almost an hour just to get the wheels clean. After a few other household chores I am enjoying dinner and a movie before this weekend comes to an end.

Snowboard Trips To Date: 11

Lessons Learned:

Verizon has terrible converage at Mt Hood. Your better off with a service like Cingular or T-Mobile.

While my friends and I were having fun at the mountain Saturday my friend Meghann didn't realize her phone was not where it was supposed to be. When she returned to her car her phone was no where to be found. Now when she went into T-Mobile to inquire about a replacement phone they told her the only thing they could do was sell her a phone along with a nice new two year contract. Now Meghann has been with T-Mobile since they were Voicestream, a very long time to say the least. Its a sad state of affairs when customer loyalty doesn't mean anything anymore.

It's about 10:20 PM and I have tomorrow off. So naturally I'm up late and bored. I was reading a blog post on a former co-workers site about google indexing and got curious where I would rank if you searched for "bit-shift". So I loaded up my favorite web browser, pointed it towards google and off I went. Was I on the first page...Nope. Page two you say? Notta. When I loaded up page three I was beginning to get depressed. But Wait! There at the bottom of the page, second to the last link was Bit-Shift.Net. Woohoo! Atleast I beat out a link to an Intel article on 64 bit-shifting, HA! Take that Intel.

Note: if you google for "VoIP Eligibility" and select I Feel Lucky, you get to my site :P How cool is that?

UPDATE: Thanks to Greg Hughes for pointing out my spelling error. I apologize to anyone that took offense. Since then, I've moved up 3 positions in the search ranking.

The mind is an amazing thing. Just when you think you have a handle on it, something happens to place you back at square one. Especially when it comes to that mysterious part of everyones mind, the subconscious, the black box of your brain. This quiz demonstrates how a seemingly unrelated idea can affect how we think. I was part of the 98% (you'll understand after the quiz). Where do you rank?

Every year on Sauvie's Island, The Maize organizes a giant corn maze for familys to wonder through. The organizers of the event come up with a clever design that reflects something about the location or whats going on in the country. The maze I visited was laid out with a discover Oregon theme. As was the case last night, the mazes can be quite perilous, not from the many volunteers hiding through out the maze to scare the life out of you, but from the weather. Now to some, tromping aroud a corn field in the pitch black up to your ankles in mud may not sound like much fun, but I had a great time! The lines were short and there wasn't a lot of screaming kids or roudy groups of teenagers. Just me, my friends and our mission to complete the maze.

To help you along the way, there are placards with numbers on them. When you enter the maze your given a trivia card with questions corresponding to the numbers. They have a large variety of trivia to choose from appropriate for all ages from toddlers all the way to those enjoying their golden years. When you encounter a number you look at the question, and depending on your answer you are told to go left or right. It's not as simple as it sounds, find the numbers is half the challenge and fun, especially in the pitch dark in mud up to your ankles!

Information about the mazes and finding a maze near you can be found here.

I went to Panda Express for lunch today. When I was done I opened my fortune cookie that I think was left over from the cold war. The fortune was "An adventure awaits you". Now this is interesting because I've never been one to turn down an invitation for anything that could be construed as dangerous, like sky diving for example. And since I'm heading up to Mt. Hood this weekend; I'm very curious if anything adventursome will take place.

Welcome to Bit-Shift.Net. After much talk and even more in-action
I've finally established a presence on the internet. I was waiting
until fiber optic was installed as I was planning on hosting this web
blog myself. But despite having a huge amount of bandwidth, Verizon has
blocked all incoming HTTP requests, unless you want to pay their prices
for a "commercial" account. Graciously my boss offered to host my blog
on his server, www.greghughes.net, Thanks Greg! I've got alot of
catching up to do so stay tuned for more updates.